The science behind THRIVE Week, including research conducted right here at Syracuse University. Advice, tips, and research-backed wellness information collected by Profs. Yanhong Liu, Janine Nieroda, Nadaya Brantley, and Tracey Marchese.
TH: Thank Your Host
- Expressing thanks is polite AND powerful: research shows that gratitude boosts wellbeing, mood, and motivation for both the person giving it and the person receiving it.
- In a world where educators and mental health professionals often question whether they’re doing enough, a sincere and thought-out thank you note tells them their efforts matter. A supervisor may not know they made a difference until you tell them, and it can enhance their job satisfaction, motivation, and sense of purpose (in ways that formal evaluations rarely do).
- For you – practicing gratitude helps you recognize the support around you, protect your self-esteem, and develop more positive ways of coping with challenges. When you reflect on the mentors who shaped you most, you may think most often about kindness, encouragement, and genuine care, a reminder of your powerful professional and social circles of support.
- Research also shows that writing about what we’re grateful for – not just thinking or saying it – triggers a specific process of cognitive reframing and emotional release that shifts attention toward the positive, activates an upward spiral of wellbeing, and builds psychological resources over time.
- Beyond THRIVE Week: Keep thank you notes around, or find digital e-cards, and regularly use them to thank your mentors, faculty, supervisors, and other key people in your professional and personal life.
Citations: Allen et al., “Expressions of gratitude in education,” 2024; Unsworth et al., “Giving Thanks,” 2010; Zang et al., “The Impact of Gratitude,” 2025; Kaur et al., “From Struggle to Strength,” 2025.
R: Rooting for You
- Resilience is a skill you can build, not something you’re born with. Resilience is the ability to adapt well after experiencing adversity, trauma, major life changes, or other stressors. It’s a dynamic process that can be actively developed over time, and college is a key time to do that – shaped by your habits, relationships, and environment. Research shows that even seven weeks of consistent wellness intervention can measurably increase resilience in college students.
- Professor Liu’s study challenges a common assumption in mental health research: well-being and distress, often thought as opposite ends of a spectrum, can coexist. You can be struggling and thriving at the same time, and improving one does not automatically fix the other.
- What can help you strengthen your well-being and resilience? Liu’s study of over 5,600 Syracuse University students found that sleep quality had the strongest effect of any variable on psychological distress. Poor or too little sleep doesn’t just make you tired; it measurably increases anxiety and depressive symptoms.
- But friendships and belonging are still a significant factor against mental health struggles. Having strong social supports can provide a space to talk it out when problems arise, and help you feel valued and accepted on campus.
- There’s no one magic bullet for strong mental health. But sleep and friendships, along with exercise, nutrition, and hydration, explain the majority of the variation in student wellbeing. Small, consistent changes and building habits one at a time can make a big difference.
- Beyond THRIVE Week: Take stock of your habits where you could improve, and make a plan to improve them (but not so much at once that it’s overwhelming!) This could mean going to bed 1 hour earlier every night for a week, putting a block of friend time on your calendar to catch up, or trying a new fitness class at the Barnes Center. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick to everything 100% of the time from the start. These habits can take time to develop.
Citations: Liu et al., “Psychological Well-Being and Distress Among College Students,” 2025; Vidic, “Multi-Year Investigation of a Relaxation Course,” 2023.
I: Inspire Yourself
- Journaling is backed by decades of science and hundreds of studies. It can clear mental space and reduce your mental load, organizing chaotic thoughts and helping you develop clarity around your feelings and actions.
- This makes it more than just venting – journaling promotes what researchers call critical self-reflection, or the ability to examine your own evolving beliefs, feelings, and perspectives with increasing clarity over time and to find objective distance on difficult experiences.
- Not always up for writing about your day? All kinds of formats like poetry, doodling/drawing, collaging, lists and bullets, and letters to others have been found to be effective. It’s all about finding what works for you.
- Beyond THRIVE Week: Use your new journal once a day, once a week, or any schedule that works for you. Try out different formats and techniques to see what works best for both your self-reflection and stress relief.
Citations: Ren et al., “Exploring Data-enabled Analogue Journaling,” 2025; Peach, “Creative Mental Health Literacy Practices,” 2023; Hiemstra, “Uses and Benefits of Journal Writing,” 2001.
V: Vitalize
- When it feels like you have to fill every minute of the day with work, it can actually be more valuable to pause. Research with students found that rising stress levels during the academic year typically led to lower quality work and academic performance.
- But studies consistently show that mindfulness and perceived stress are inversely and significantly correlated. Being present, aware, and focused internally even briefly can lower your immediate stress levels.
- Intentional pauses can also reduce what is called “maladaptive coping,” or negative and unhealthy coping habits like avoidance, substance abuse, and negative self talk, improving your stress levels over time.
- There’s no one way to be mindful. Research comparing yoga, hiking, and other experiential activities found no significant difference between modalities: all were equally effective at reducing stress. The key is being intentional and focusing only on the pause in the moment.
- Campus wellness resources really do work! Syracuse University-based research found that students who used campus mindfulness spaces, recreation services, and wellness resources reported meaningfully better mental health outcomes.
- Beyond THRIVE Week: Some inspiration for potential mindfulness and intentional pause activities you can build into your day: Go for a short walk. Follow a meditation video. Stop by the Crowley Family MindSpa. Do 5 minutes of stretching at your desk. Stop and make a to do list for the day. Put the phone down for an hour before bed. Get a drink of water. Write a note to a friend. Listen to your favorite song. Stop for a snack or work on a puzzle or board game at the SOE Care Corner (back of Academic Services in 150 Huntington Hall).
Citations: Liu et al., “An Integrated Health and Wellness Model,” 2024; Lampe & Müller-Hilke, “Mindfulness-based Intervention,” 2021; Morgan, “Stress Management for College Students,” 2017; Vidic, “Multi-Year Investigation of a Relaxation Course,” 2023.
E: Envision Your Future
- Vision boards aren’t just arts and crafts – visualization is a research-backed psychological tool for self-discovery. Vision boards may help us self-reflect on what is important to us, while also helping us imagine what a positive future could look like.
- Research in positive psychology suggests this plays a critical role in building resilience, motivation, and emotional well-being. Choosing images and words that represent you makes you clarify your values and priorities, sometimes surfacing ideas that you didn’t even know were valuable to you. At the same time, you narrow down on what’s really important to you, helping imagine a positive ideal future.
- Research with undergraduate and graduate students found that students are often surprised by how many valuable experiences and aspirations surface when making a vision board, including experiences they had forgotten or undervalued.
- Seeing your vision board on your wall regularly can shift you towards a more optimistic and goal-oriented mindset. Visualization engages cognitive and emotional processes that help you focus more intentionally, and your brain may start filtering information, opportunities, and experiences through the lens of what aligns with your personal goals. You recognize how much you’ve already done and how clearly you can picture where you’re headed.
- Research in psychology and sports science has shown that visualizing a goal improves performance by preparing the brain for the real-world actions required to achieve it – like an athlete mentally rehearsing their routine or race.
- Beyond THRIVE Week: Now that you have a vision board, put it somewhere you’ll see it regularly. You may also want to take some time every semester or year to update it, adding new images and words or shifting what has the most emphasis.
Citations: Burton & Lent, “The Use of Vision Boards,” 2016; Benedict, “Using Vision Boards,” 2021.